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Published: March 19th 2007
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North Korean Soldier
The zoom on my new camera is so amazing! I was standing almost 500 feet away! So this weekends trip to Seoul was phenomenal. Many thanks to all those who made it happen, I am really starting to make some good friends over here.
This weekend started pretty standard. I got out of school, ran home, ate some dinner, met up with jonny, stopped by work to pick up my mp3, and settled at WaBar for a Vat of Beer. Soon Katie and Michelle met up with us and we were on our way to the train station. We arrived at the station and found ourselves some soju style refreshments for the highspeed train ride and then we were off. Whirling down the tracks at speeds well over 160mph we'd hit our destination in Seoul in just over 2 hours. Upon arriving we were greated by the typical utter chaos of the big city. People were everywhere and things were just flying by us. Hailing a cabby turned out to be a little difficult than we had planned but the girls remedied that quickly when Jonny and I ducked back a bit from the road.
And with that we were off to our Hostel, which was a fun adventure in and of itself. Michelle found us a
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Just a random shot of a bell tower at the DMZ great, cheap, backpackers hostel tucked just off a main road. I will admit that we were turned off at first whif walking the door but that was only because of the adjacent bathroom. Our uneasiness was quickly allayed when we checked in. The guy behind the desk was rather friendly and the door was adorned with a t-shirt reading "the world is a book, those who dont travel only get to read a page..." The room was pretty spacious and clean and the only downside I could find was the temperature was a little cold. We called it a pretty 'calm' if not early night. Before I crashed I wandered around the corner outside the hostel and found a mafia bar called simply 'Africa'. I got drank a shot of free whiskey before I headed back to the hostel for the night citing the advice given to me when I was much younger for just such a situation - Never outstay your welcome...
The next morning was an absolute blur. I sprung out of bed as the alarm went off and flicked on the like. F@#$!! I thought its 5:55 am on a Saturday, what am I doing awake?! But before
The Man and his Flute
This is a shot taken in the Insadon Market in Seoul it could even sink in I was in the back of a cab heading to the USO tour station. After a quick cup of black Cafe Americano we were getting on our USO bus to the DMZ which was about an hour north of Seoul. Our tour guide was really friendly and spoke a humour style of broken English. When we arrived at the military base we had our ID's checked and met our American Army issued tour guide and switched over to a JSA bus for our tour of the actual DMZ. The whole experience was rather amazing. I saw North Korean Soldiers, looked out over the DMZ, toured
Tunnel Three - a very... informative yet painful experience. I'll let the pictures below speak for themselves. Also bear in mind there was a lot I was not allowed to photograph. The whole trip was surreal. I was literally the front lines of a cold war zone.
After the trip we headed back to Seoul and walked from the USO building to
Itaewon, the famous foreigner district. The walk was an adventure in itself and I got to see a lot of the city that way. The streets
Wicker Dragon
Korea - always randomly beautiful... were lined with markets and I picked myself up a nice knit hat for 5 dollars. That evening we dined at a crazy delicious Halal Buffet restuarant and then headed back to the hostel to rest up a bit. We played some Soju drinking games and headed down to the University district around 11. It was a fairly crazy time, bars were everywhere, and people were in abundance, everyone was celebrating St. Patty's day. I ended up out until 4am and finished my night eating street meat which was quite delicious.
The next morning I was up at 9 am and got some breakfast downstairs in the hostel. It was actually quite good, I had a soup that was a lot like cream of wheat, with some toast and ham. Check out time was 10 am so I hurried to get packed up. From there we jumped a subway to Seoul Station, I seriously considered grabbing a train there and then, but decided in the name of the experience that I'd stay and hang out, which turned out to be a glorious decision. We grabbed a proper breakfast at a Canadian Sports bar and watched some hockey. Then we went on a trek through the city to find a market Michelle had read about in Lonely Planet. On the way we found a buddhist temple, the emperors castle, and countless other random fascinating places. We eventually found the market which was an adventure in and of itself. We spent literally 5 hours walking just over a block. By the end of this trip we were all bloody exhausted. I dont think I've pushed my body that hard in years. All and all we walked probably a good 25 miles, slept maybe 5 hours total between the two days. And experienced so much more than I will ever have time to write about. Anyway I hope you enjoy the pictures! I'd love to hear what everyone thinks. So please do write me back!
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